Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor and Middle-earth: Shadow of War are an interesting pair to revisit in 2026. Both games were ambitious open-world action adventures in their respective eras, but their biggest contribution to the genre was arguably the Nemesis System, which gave Orc enemies memories, rivalries and personalities and turned encounters into stories of their own. The Middle-earth: Shadow Bundle brings the Game of the Year Edition of the first game and the Definitive Edition of its sequel to Nintendo Switch 2 for the first time, offering a substantial amount of content in one package. The games themselves remain remarkably compelling, although the conversion to Nintendo’s newer hardware feels more functional than transformative.
Shadow of Mordor remains the more focused of the two. Its story follows Talion, a ranger murdered alongside his family before being bound to the spirit of the Elven smith Celebrimbor. The resulting partnership sends Talion on a straightforward revenge mission through Mordor, gradually uncovering more about Celebrimbor, Sauron and the Rings of Power. It is not the most sophisticated interpretation of Tolkien, and it takes some liberties with the established mythology, but the relatively simple premise works in its favor. The story is easy to follow even without extensive knowledge of Middle-earth, while characters such as Gollum help connect this original adventure to the wider mythology.
The real reason Shadow of Mordor remains worth playing, however, is the Nemesis System. On paper, much of the gameplay looks like a product of its time: the parkour and stealth recall Assassin’s Creed, while the responsive counter-based combat clearly owes something to Batman: Arkham. None of those elements are particularly revolutionary on their own, but they provide a strong foundation for the dynamic Orc hierarchy layered on top of them. Captains can remember previous encounters, develop grudges, gain power after killing Talion, exploit rivalries with other Orcs or even become allies. Hunting a specific captain can therefore turn into a personal vendetta rather than simply another objective on the map, and that unpredictability still gives the game a sandbox quality that many more recent open-world games struggle to reproduce.
There are limitations that have become more apparent with age. The basic activities can become repetitive, with the player repeatedly fighting Orcs, interrogating enemies, taking out captains and assaulting fortified positions. The Nemesis System does a remarkable job of disguising that repetition by constantly changing the personalities and circumstances of those encounters, while the relatively compact campaign prevents the formula from becoming completely exhausting. The Game of the Year Edition also provides the game’s major expansions, giving the package more substance without changing the fundamental experience. It is telling that the core gameplay still feels so effective despite its familiar ingredients: the Nemesis System remains the feature that elevates an otherwise recognisable open-world action game into something distinctive.
Shadow of War takes that idea and expands almost everything around it. The sequel introduces a new Ring of Power and moves from hunting individual Orc captains towards building an army capable of conquering and defending entire fortresses. Recruiting followers, manipulating the Orc hierarchy and eventually sending those followers into massive sieges makes the Nemesis System feel considerably more ambitious. The larger environments are also more varied, ranging from snowy peaks to forests and other distinct areas of Mordor, and the greater variety of enemies and characters gives the sequel an impressive sense of scale. When the fortress-conquest mechanics click, there is considerable satisfaction in creating an army and then using it to reshape the balance of power.
That increased scale also exposes the sequel’s biggest weakness. Shadow of War sometimes seems reluctant to leave anything out, with multiple mission lines, RPG-style levels and loot, larger maps and numerous objectives competing for attention. The conquest system is satisfying, but repeating the same basic cycle across several regions can eventually turn something initially exciting into routine. The removal of the original game’s post-launch microtransaction system is certainly welcome, and the Definitive Edition contains a considerable amount of additional content, but traces of that original design philosophy remain in the sheer volume of captains, loot and activities. Shadow of War is therefore arguably the more impressive game mechanically, but Shadow of Mordor’s tighter structure makes its individual ideas feel more consistently meaningful.
The sequel’s story is similarly bigger, louder and less concerned with fitting neatly into Tolkien’s established chronology. It takes substantial creative liberties and introduces events and characters that can feel more like elaborate Middle-earth fan fiction than an attempt at strict continuity. That approach will not appeal equally to every Tolkien fan, but it does allow Shadow of War to embrace its fantasy setting more freely, resulting in larger conflicts, more spectacular encounters and greater fan service. The narrative is entertaining enough when taken on those terms, even if its increasing scale eventually contributes to the sense that the sequel is stretching the original concept rather than refining it.
On Switch 2, both games are perfectly playable and the hardware does provide some clear benefits, particularly when it comes to resolution and the ability to experience these large open worlds both on a television and in handheld mode. The environments can still look attractive, with Shadow of War in particular benefiting from its more varied locations, while the overall art direction has aged reasonably well. At the same time, this is not a remaster. The visual presentation remains recognisably from the PS4/Xbox One generation, and the 30fps target is not accompanied by a higher-performance option. Both games can experience drops during busier scenes, with the larger battles in Shadow of War naturally placing greater pressure on the hardware.
The technical shortcomings are therefore more disappointing as a missed opportunity than disastrous in themselves. Shadow of Mordor in particular can suffer from stutters and frame drops later in the campaign. There is also some pop-in, especially in the sequel, and loading times can be lengthy. The aggressive sharpening used in the presentation does little to disguise the age of the underlying assets. Gyro aiming with the bow is a useful addition, but otherwise the Switch 2-specific features are limited, making this feel like a straightforward conversion rather than a version built to demonstrate what the new hardware can do.
Audio is similarly serviceable rather than upgraded. The voice acting still works well, helping sell the larger-than-life Orc personalities, while the music supports the atmosphere without simply attempting to reproduce the film scores. The sound presentation can feel somewhat compressed, though, reinforcing the sense that little effort has gone into modernising the original presentation. The same is ultimately true of the visuals: neither game looks bad, and their art direction continues to do much of the heavy lifting, but players expecting a substantial technical makeover from a 2026 Switch 2 release may be disappointed.
That makes the Middle-earth: Shadow Bundle an easier recommendation for newcomers than for people who already own these games elsewhere. There is still an enormous amount to enjoy here, from Shadow of Mordor’s remarkably inventive Nemesis System to Shadow of War’s much larger interpretation of the same concept. The combat remains satisfying, the open worlds provide plenty of freedom and the two games offer a fascinating snapshot of how the open-world action genre evolved during the 2010s. More importantly, the central idea that made the original so memorable has lost surprisingly little of its impact.
The Switch 2 versions simply do not do quite enough with that opportunity. They preserve two genuinely influential games, and bringing them to a Nintendo platform has obvious value, particularly given their portability, but the ports are conservative enough that existing owners have relatively little reason to double-dip purely for technical improvements. The criticisms are therefore best understood as frustrations surrounding an otherwise worthwhile package rather than evidence that either game has become obsolete. Shadow of Mordor remains the tighter and more focused experience, Shadow of War offers greater scale at the expense of some discipline, and together they still demonstrate why the Nemesis System was such an important innovation. For anyone experiencing these games for the first time, the bundle remains an excellent way to enter Mordor; for returning players, its biggest selling point is convenience rather than reinvention.
Score: 7.7/10